Mapping the 20 high-rises under construction in San Francisco right now

San Francisco's dense skyline is growing again in 2017, as the city anticipates the completion of some towers long under construction and the emerging profile of others underway. From the Salesforce Tower and 181 Fremont in Yerba Buena to Exchange Place on the edge of Chinatown and the future home of Pinterest at 505 Brannan, the new crop of high-rises promises to be fruitful this year.

To make the cut, a building must be eight or more stories when completed. Towers must have broken ground already or be on the verge of doing so within the next few months. Map points are listed here by building height, from tallest to shortest—or more precisely, from what will soon be the tallest and the shortest.

1 Salesforce Tower

A building like this is like the big Christmas present you couldn't wait to unwrap as a kid. Though observers have envisioned the final 61-story obelisk countless times, only in the past few months, after it finally broke the record and officially became the city's tallest building last year, has the enormity of its scale become apparent. Workers poured the concrete for the top floor in January.

2 Oceanwide Center

On the other hand, San Francisco's future second-tallest building, its glassy crown to one day crest 905 feet, only just broke ground a few months ago. A product of American and Chinese development and British design by way of Lord Norman Foster makes it decidedly the city's most diverse new addition.

3 181 Fremont

Though overshadowed (literally, at certain times of the day) by taller nearby projects, this 70-story high-rise may rise to prominence beyond its mere height as the classiest and most iconic looking of this generation of new buildings. The ultra luxury condos inside now under construction (beginning in the low $3 million) will be completed this year.

6 706 Mission

This 500 foot, 43-story tower will be the home of San Francisco's Mexico Museum, but for now it's probably most notable for being the latest from Millennium Partners. The developers have made a point of noting that the foundations will go to bedrock.

8 Folsom Bay Tower

Long in the planning, a tipster points out that a construction fence has finally gone up around the lots at Folsom and Spear. This corkscrewing Studio Gang-designed spire fills in the last of the freeway parcels and will run up to 400 feet after scoring an upzoning in late 2015/early 2016.

9 33 Tehama (previously 41 Tehama)

This incoming 35-story, 380-foot, Arquitectonica-designed building thrilled locals in decidedly the wrong way in February, as a crane malfunction threatened to send a concrete slab crashing to the street below. No one was hurt.

10 Trinity Place

If it seems like this Market Street project will never be finished, that's a misapprehension: It's finished several times already, with many residents to boot. But the incredibly ambitious 1,900-unit, Arquitectonica-designed, 17-24 story development still has a lot of building to do before its full four-structure plan is complete.

11 Exchange Place

This 19-story building on the edge of Chinatown sat in development limbo as an overgrown dirt lot for decades. The name is due to the historic Mining Exchange Building on the site, much of it being absorbed and preserved as part of the rising Heller-Manus designed project.

12 One Mission Bay

13 150 Van Ness

Upon completion, this 13-story building, located on a corner of what developers reckon will soon be a key intersection in San Francisco, will yield over 400 new homes. For now, though, it's still mostly a hole in the ground.

16 CPMC Van Ness

The long and contentious development of the 12-story, 700,000-square-foot hospital suggests a lesson in optimism for those daunted by the hazards of building in San Francisco. Facilities should be in use by 2019.

20 505 Brannan

The future home of Pinterest is not right now a member of the high-rise club, slated only for six stories. But the developer has long planned to expand the project's scale, hoping to one day climb closer to 20 stories with future additions, meaning that the building presently underway is actually a foundation.

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